Bass tournaments may have run their course

January kicks off the bass tournament season and Clear Lake is one of the more popular stops on the tournament circuit. The problem is that fewer fishermen are competing in the tournaments. Last year most of the circuits drew fewer fishermen than at any other time in history. Many of the team events drew only 10-15 boats and even the major tournaments, with a few exceptions, drew fewer that 100 boats.

And it wasn't only at Clear Lake where the tournament participant numbers were down. Popular waters such as Lake Shasta and the Delta also failed to draw many fishermen. A number of tournament anglers are wondering if bass tournaments have run their course. In fact, one major circuit has folded before its first tournament. The reason given is that sponsors just weren't ready to put up any cash.

There are two types of tournaments, team and pro/am. Typically a team event will have a basic entry fee of approximately $200 plus option money. The pro/ams are more expensive, with the pro paying upward of $500 or more to enter. The tournaments normally pay back one in five places. For example a 100-boat field pays down 20 places and that doesn't include big fish and other options. A typical team circuit will have six tournaments during the course of it season. There is a Tournament of Champions (TOC) at the end of the season for those who have qualified. Some of the circuits award the TOC winners a new bass boat while others give them cash.

Being a so-called professional bass fisherman is a hard life. They win very little money and have huge expenses. A few of the top pros get sponsor money but most don't receive a dime. In fact, many of the pros actually buy the sponsor logos, shirts and hats that they wear in the tournaments.

I remember when the Record-Bee was doing videos for its website and I taped a bass tournament. The young man who won the tournament was completely dressed in bright colors with tackle and boat manufacture logos plastered all over his shirt, cap and even his boat. Before we ran the camera he asked if he could thanks his sponsors on the air, which I agreed to. After the taping I asked him if he had been given a boat or entry fees. He said he had not and that he even had to buy the shirt and cap he was wearing. In other words, he was giving free advertisement to the tackle and boat manufacturers.

In most sports the organizers receive money from the spectators, however, in bass tournaments the only spectators are those who show up for the weigh-ins and they aren't about to pay a fee to watch a fisherman weigh in a bag of fish. Most of the tournament organizers do receive some money from tackle and boat manufacturers, but it's not very much. They make most of their money by taking a portion of the entry fees that the anglers pay.

Typically a tournament organization pays from 50 to 60 percent of the entry fees back to the fishermen. The problem occurs when there is a small field, such as there has been this past year. In that event, the total entry fees don't add up to much. Last year some of the tournaments drew fewer than 12 boats and the winning team received only about $600. When that team deducted its entry fee and money spent on gas, it come out on the minus side. In fact, a typical team that drives from the Delta to Clear Lake and spends two days in a motel plus entry fees, food and gas spends close to $1,000, and that's just to win back $600 or less.

Another reason behind the small turnouts could be that many fishermen are just moving onto other endeavors. While they still enjoy recreational fishing, they aren't interested in tournament competition. Combine all of that with a poor economy and it impacts the bass tournaments. In other words, there is only so much money to go around and making a house payment and putting food on the table takes priority.